‘Rhinoceros’ Replaces ‘The Full Monty’ on Broadway Next Spring

By Daniel Okafor

Broadway’s Todd Haimes Theater has a new tenant. A revival of “Rhinoceros,” starring John Turturro, Tatiana Maslany and Tony Shalhoub, will open there next spring. It steps into a slot previously held by “The Full Monty,” which has been postponed.

That’s the story in one sentence. A scheduling change at one theater, two productions trading places, one of them pushed down the calendar. The commercial margins of Broadway make such swaps routine. They are rarely this well-cast.

Who is starring in the revival?

Three names, and none of them decorative:

• John Turturro, the film and stage actor whose Broadway appearances are selective events rather than habits.
• Tatiana Maslany, the Emmy-winning screen actor (“Orphan Black”) bringing her shape-shifting stage craft to a play literally about people transforming.
• Tony Shalhoub, a Tony winner and a reliable signal of serious intent on any marquee.

That casting reads as a statement. “Rhinoceros,” Eugenio Ionesco’s absurdist classic about a town whose inhabitants one by one turn into the title beast, tends to attract ensembles that can sell metamorphosis as comedy and threat at once. This trio can.

The source names the venue as the Todd Haimes Theater, the Roundabout Theatre Company’s flagship house on West 46th Street. It names the season as spring. It does not name a director, an opening date or a first preview. Those details will presumably arrive when the production announces its schedule.

What happened to ‘The Full Monty’?

It moved. That is the confirmed fact. “The Full Monty,” the musical based on the 1997 British film about unemployed steelworkers who turn to stripping, was set for Broadway and has been postponed. The production slated for the Todd Haimes Theater next spring will now be Ionesco instead.

The word “postponed” is doing careful work here. It is not “cancelled.” A postponed show intends to return to the calendar, though Broadway history offers plenty of postponements that quietly became nothing at all. No new dates have been announced.

The irony writes itself, and I will only point at it. A play about people transforming into herd animals replaces a musical about workers baring themselves out of economic desperation. Ionesco would recognize both premises. He might even prefer the second.

Why does the swap matter?

For audiences, it means Ionesco returns to Broadway with a cast most theaters couldn’t assemble. For the postponed musical, it means an indefinite wait in a season already crowded with titles competing for the same ticket buyers. For the Todd Haimes Theater, it means the spring slot stays occupied by a name cast rather than sitting dark.

Watch for the announcement of dates, director and creative team. Until then, the cast list is the story, and it is a strong one.

Arts & Voices